Marked for Araujo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Aug 2038
Nico Fernandes: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Colon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Aug 2038
Araujo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2038
Leandro Méndez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Aug 2038
Alejandro Acosta damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad2 Aug 2038
Luiz Rocha breaks a bone — 19 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market2 Aug 2038
João Ribeiro hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colon can pretend not to have heard.
Squad2 Aug 2038
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Colon may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Aug 2038
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Agustín Olavarría commits to Colon for another 2 years.
Player ratings2 Aug 2038
22 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings2 Aug 2038
Araujo could have had three
9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Player ratings2 Aug 2038
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match31 Jul 2038
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Uruguay Montevideo will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Jul 2038
Alejandro Acosta damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad26 Jul 2038
Luiz Rocha breaks a bone — 26 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad26 Jul 2038
Tempers go at Colon
Agustín Olavarría was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Jul 2038
Leandro Méndez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match24 Jul 2038
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom26 Jul 2038
118% of the income goes out in wages at Colon
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Market26 Jul 2038
The clock does Facundo Paredes’s negotiating for him
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Colon could ask drops and the wages Facundo Paredes can ask rise.
Player ratings26 Jul 2038
Marked 5.19. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings26 Jul 2038
Shots: 4, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jul 2038
Alejandro Acosta damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Luiz Rocha breaks a bone — 33 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings19 Jul 2038
Araujo scores twice — 8.30
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Tempers go at Colon
Leandro Méndez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match17 Jul 2038
Three points for Colon, 2‑1 the final word against Progreso in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Getting past Agustín Olavarría has become the hardest job in the division
12 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
In brief
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Player ratings
Jorge Varela runs at them all day
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Boardroom
The Colon production line keeps running
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The terraces
The press cannot get enough of Araujo
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The terraces
Araujo has his own song now
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Jul 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alejandro Acosta
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colon lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Jul 2038
A fracture rules Luiz Rocha out for 47 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market5 Jul 2038
João Ribeiro hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colon can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Jul 2038
Araujo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 2038
Leandro Méndez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match3 Jul 2038
Colon cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match3 Jul 2038
Deportivo Maldonado left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market5 Jul 2038
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Boardroom5 Jul 2038
Colon sign 5 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jun 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alejandro Acosta
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colon lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Jun 2038
A fracture rules Luiz Rocha out for 54 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 Jun 2038
Tempers go at Colon
Leandro Méndez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2038
Words at Colon training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrés Olivera is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Boardroom28 Jun 2038
Wages eat 120% of everything Colon earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings28 Jun 2038
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.70 on the card, and the Colon support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings28 Jun 2038
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings28 Jun 2038
13 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match26 Jun 2038
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Central Espanol will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Jun 2038
Facundo Paredes damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad14 Jun 2038
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad14 Jun 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2038
Words at Colon training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandro Méndez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings14 Jun 2038
A performance of 9.30 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The terraces14 Jun 2038
Colon supporters have found a favourite in Jorge Varela
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Jorge Varela has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match12 Jun 2038
Three points for Colon, 1‑0 the final word against Oriental in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings14 Jun 2038
19 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings14 Jun 2038
8 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jun 2038
Facundo Paredes damages knee ligaments — 32 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 32 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match5 Jun 2038
Colon strike at the death to beat Albion
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Albion had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Colon did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings7 Jun 2038
Both of them Araujo's — 8.12
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.12, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad7 Jun 2038
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad7 Jun 2038
Gabriel Alvarez: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Colon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom7 Jun 2038
An order from above at Colon: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Market7 Jun 2038
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad7 Jun 2038
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gabriel Albín commits to Colon for another 2 years.
Match5 Jun 2038
It finished 3‑2, and it was Araujo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Colon.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 May 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad10 May 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alejandro Acosta
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colon lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad10 May 2038
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad10 May 2038
Araujo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 May 2038
Plaza Colonia left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings10 May 2038
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad5 Apr 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad5 Apr 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alejandro Acosta
142 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colon lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Apr 2038
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad5 Apr 2038
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Leandro Méndez commits to Colon for another 2 years.
Player ratings5 Apr 2038
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match3 Apr 2038
A 1‑0 win over Deportivo Maldonado, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
In brief
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Boardroom
89% of the income goes out in wages at Colon
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Boardroom
Colon sign a deal worth $90.1K a year
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Player ratings
Nothing got past Jord Selmani
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Player ratings
Jorge Varela runs at them all day
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad22 Mar 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 Mar 2038
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Camilo Sanchez damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match17 Mar 2038
Colon march on in the cup
Liverpool Montevideo are out and Colon go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
Nahuel Varela, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
Alex Moretti, 35, rolls back the years — 7.87
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match20 Mar 2038
Nobody wants to play Colon right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Tempers go at Colon
Araujo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
A performance of 9.33 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Mar 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 Mar 2038
Camilo Sanchez damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings15 Mar 2038
Miguel Gonzalez, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings15 Mar 2038
Leandro Méndez, 35, rolls back the years — 8.20
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.20 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad15 Mar 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings15 Mar 2038
Ninety minutes of Jorge Varela at his very best
Marked 9.44. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Colon.
Match13 Mar 2038
Three points for Colon, 2‑0 the final word against Oriental in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad15 Mar 2038
50 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market15 Mar 2038
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Feb 2038
Andrés Olivera breaks a bone — 105 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 105 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 Feb 2038
Camilo Sanchez damages knee ligaments — 64 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 64 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad22 Feb 2038
Tempers go at Colon
Leandro Méndez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2038
Andrés Olivera breaks a bone — 112 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 112 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 Feb 2038
Camilo Sanchez damages knee ligaments — 71 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 71 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match13 Feb 2038
Colon win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Tacuarembo will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings15 Feb 2038
Age has not caught Alex Moretti yet — 8.23
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.23 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad15 Feb 2038
Tempers go at Colon
Agustín Olavarría was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad15 Feb 2038
Leandro Méndez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom15 Feb 2038
Graduation day at Colon
8 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Match13 Feb 2038
It finished 2‑1, and it was Araujo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Colon.
Market15 Feb 2038
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alvaro Diaz has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market14 Dec 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colon is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom14 Dec 2037
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad14 Dec 2037
Words at Colon training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandro Méndez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad14 Dec 2037
Tempers go at Colon
Araujo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2037
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2037
Agustín Olavarría damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad26 Oct 2037
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Oct 2037
Words at Colon training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandro Méndez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2037
Agustín Olavarría damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad19 Oct 2037
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad19 Oct 2037
Araujo keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Colon may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2037
Agustín Olavarría damages knee ligaments — 42 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 42 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad28 Sep 2037
Words at Colon training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandro Méndez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad28 Sep 2037
Tempers go at Colon
Araujo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2037
Agustín Olavarría damages knee ligaments — 70 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 70 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Tempers go at Colon
Leandro Méndez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Jhonesy Vásquez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
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Squad
Araujo is still paying for one afternoon at Colon
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2037
Agustín Olavarría damages knee ligaments — 98 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 98 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings3 Aug 2037
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.47 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad3 Aug 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings3 Aug 2037
22 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad3 Aug 2037
Words at Colon training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandro Méndez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match1 Aug 2037
It finished 1‑0, and it was Maximiliano Burruzo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Colon.
Squad3 Aug 2037
Araujo is still paying for one afternoon at Colon
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Player ratings3 Aug 2037
11 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings3 Aug 2037
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Jul 2037
Agustín Olavarría damages knee ligaments — 105 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 105 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match25 Jul 2037
7 matches without a win for Colon
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Colon are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings27 Jul 2037
Jorge Varela, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.96
A mark of 8.96 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings27 Jul 2037
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.44 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Araujo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Leandro Méndez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces27 Jul 2037
Colon supporters have found a favourite in Jorge Varela
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Jorge Varela has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad27 Jul 2037
No hiding place for Araujo
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Araujo, and the manager let it.
Boardroom27 Jul 2037
Wages eat 99% of everything Colon earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
In brief
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Match
Colon share the spoils with Albion
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Market
The clock does Miguel Gonzalez’s negotiating for him
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Market
The window shut and Mingo is still in the building
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Jun 2037
Agustín Olavarría damages knee ligaments — 140 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 140 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad22 Jun 2037
There were 12 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings22 Jun 2037
Jorge Varela, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.57
A mark of 8.57 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings22 Jun 2037
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.15 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad22 Jun 2037
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad22 Jun 2037
Tempers go at Colon
Araujo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The terraces22 Jun 2037
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings22 Jun 2037
5.47 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 May 2037
Valentino Pérez damages knee ligaments — 80 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 80 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad11 May 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 May 2037
A season average of 7.04 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Colon know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad11 May 2037
Words at Colon training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandro Méndez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match9 May 2037
It needed Franco Aguirre to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against La Luz, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings11 May 2037
Araujo could have had three
8 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 May 2037
Valentino Pérez damages knee ligaments — 87 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 87 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad4 May 2037
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings4 May 2037
Miguel Gonzalez, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad4 May 2037
Araujo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 May 2037
Leandro Méndez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces4 May 2037
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings4 May 2037
A defender's afternoon for Alex Moretti
Defensive actions: 18. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Boardroom4 May 2037
Wages eat 91% of everything Colon earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings4 May 2037
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Apr 2037
Valentino Pérez damages knee ligaments — 101 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 101 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad20 Apr 2037
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings20 Apr 2037
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Araujo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Leandro Méndez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match18 Apr 2037
A 1‑1 draw with River Plate leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Apr 2037
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings6 Apr 2037
No sign of nerves from Jorge Varela at 21 — 8.41
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jorge Varela did not need any: 8.41, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings6 Apr 2037
Age has not caught Leandro Méndez yet — 8.60
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.60 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad6 Apr 2037
Araujo in trouble away from the ground
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Squad6 Apr 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gabriel Albín and Colon agree another 2 years.
Squad6 Apr 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom6 Apr 2037
Wages eat 93% of everything Colon earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match4 Apr 2037
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings6 Apr 2037
Shots: 4, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
In brief
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Player ratings
The chances came and went for Araujo
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Boardroom
Colon keep producing them
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The terraces
The press have found their man in Leandro Méndez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match18 Mar 2037
The cup run ends for Colon
0‑3 against Juventud, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad23 Mar 2037
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The terraces23 Mar 2037
Colon are taken apart by Juventud — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Player ratings23 Mar 2037
Age has not caught Alex Moretti yet — 8.90
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad23 Mar 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Mar 2037
Andrés Olivera falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings23 Mar 2037
Marked 9.35 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad23 Mar 2037
Araujo gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
In brief
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Boardroom
Doors closed at Colon
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Javier Montero
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Player ratings
The chances came and went for Araujo
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Feb 2037
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match14 Feb 2037
Nobody wins at Colon
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match14 Feb 2037
The wait goes on for Colon
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Tempers go at Colon
Leandro Méndez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Feb 2037
A move Araujo would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Araujo is living that version at Colon, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom16 Feb 2037
8 academy players handed senior numbers at Colon
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Words at Colon training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrés Olivera is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market16 Feb 2037
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Alvaro Hernandez has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market16 Feb 2037
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alvaro Sanchez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.